No one is ever alone
by Shade Azuna
Summary: Ryou thinks he's going to be all alone at Christmas time since his father left. Will it really be that lonely though? And why is Bakura being so nice? There is a very desperate cry for help in the disclaimer. Please HELP!


Shade: Weeeeeeeee!!!! An idea for a Christmas story!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Bakura: Oh yippee...  
  
Shade: *ignores him* This was NOT meant to be yaoi, but if you think it is, well, I'll let you think that. Now, um... I'm using everybody's Japanese names except for Serenity because I have no idea what it is. And Bakura is OOC. And Ryou can knit! O.O If anybody fears OOCness and a boy at the age of 16 knitting, run now. You have been warned.  
  
Bakura: Oh joy.  
  
Shade: ^-^ I don't own ANYTHING that appears in this fic!!!! Hope you enjoy!!!  
  
_Whatever_ (Is supposed to be there instead of italics cause MINE DON'T WORK!!! I've gotta figure out how to do that. Can somebody please tell me? I really want to know!)  
  
  
  
No one is ever alone  
  
Ryou hated the month of December. Well, this December anyway. Everything seemed to be going wrong. First, his father leaves on another dig, Bakura was still abusing him, he had no idea when his father would be back, his mother had died last year so he was alone and, school bullies seemed to take him for a punching bag.  
  
Sighing as he walked home, Ryou started thinking. He was alone at Christmas... again. He'd just have to fix that. Maybe his yami would be kind enough to at least spend the day with him without an evil intention cross his mind. Ryou ruled out that possibility since it involved the word 'kind'.  
  
He sighed again and turned the lock in his door. Slowly, he opened it and closed it back just as gently. He set his bag down and tiptoed up the stairs to his room. He sighed when he made it without waking his yami from his intense slumber. Flopping himself down on his bed, he thought about getting his yami a gift. He soon realized he had no money to spend on extra stuff.  
  
Ryou lay on his bed for a good hour, not doing anything. He finally decided to decorate the house for Christmas. There was a spark of hope that his dad would come home _before_ Christmas rolled around.  
  
Ryou pulled out the box that held the artificial tree from under the stairs of his room. He opened the box to be faced with lots of green... Slowly and carefully, he fished around until he found the pole for the tree and the 'plate' for it. He set those aside and dashed upstairs to get a circular blanket to put it on. He found one he had made with the Millennium Ring on it and brought that downstairs. He laid it in the corner and started putting up the tree.  
  
An hour or so rolled by while Ryou set up the tree. He had found lights somewhere in the house and had begun to string them onto the tree when Bakura came out of the Millennium Ring. Ryou didn't notice until Bakura stood behind the boy and tapped him. Ryou gave a yelp of surprise and dropped the string of Christmas lights he was holding.  
  
As if nothing was wrong, Bakura simply asked where Ryou's dad kept the super glue. Shakily, Ryou pointed to the kitchen. Bakura thanked him and left.  
  
Ryou blinked a few times and watched as Bakura rummaged through one of the drawers and found the super glue. He shrugged off the weird encounter and got back to work on the Christmas tree.  
  
3 hours passed and Ryou stood back to admire his work. He had added garland, lights, tinsel, decorations and a star atop the tree shone brightly and played 'Silent Night', 'Jingle Bells', 'We wish you a merry Christmas' and 'Deck the halls' (respectively) if Ryou whistled at a certain pitch.  
  
Satisfied with his job on the tree, Ryou started decorating the windows. He also was absentmindedly wondering why he wasn't being flung across the room right now. Not that he minded.  
  
After nearly covering his house in colorful lights, Ryou finally decided to go to bed. As he slipped into his pajamas, an idea sparked in his mind. Even if Bakura was a little cold hearted, Ryou was going to do something nice for him.  
  
***  
  
Ryou woke up the next morning and stretched. He vaguely remembered the decorating of the house last night when the memory of being in the same room with Bakura without getting flung across the room. He shuddered at the memory and got out of bed and got himself ready for school and the beating that awaited him when he got there.  
  
He slowly walked to school and stopped at the gate. It was wide open and the 5 that usually beat the pulp out of him when Bakura wasn't stood there, grinning. Ryou knew that the longer he stood there, the longer he was avoiding his fate.  
  
He gulped and prepared to go into the schoolyard when he felt himself being thrown into his soul room. When he was let out again, he was in his classroom, unharmed. Ryou sighed in relief and thanked his yami mentally. He received no answer.  
  
Ryou sat at his desk and took out some thread. No one was around at 6 in the morning (except the bullies) so he could knit in piece. School only started at 9:30 and most of the class only came at about 9:00, giving him 3 hours to get his project advanced _and_ do his homework he had neglected last night.  
  
After 2 hours at work on his knitting, he carefully put his work away and started on his homework. After about 5 minutes, Yugi and the others walked in talking in a really fast manner about Christmas. Ryou sighed and realized that, after today's exam, he'd only have about 4 days till then. That meant only four days until his project was 'due'.  
  
***  
  
Ryou finished his exam just as the bell rang and he hurriedly walked home. He easily avoided the school bullies as they were afraid to go near him after what they would call the Close encounter with the 3rd kind. Ryou laughed silently to himself as he ran, picturing the five bullies getting attacked by small aliens.  
  
He made it home in good time and immediately started working on his project. A good 3 hours passed and he was truly satisfied with the results. He held his work up to eye level and grinned. It was truly a masterpiece... In his eyes, anyway. He stopped admiring the piece of work and went to go wrap it.  
  
***  
  
Christmas day rolled around and Ryou's dad never showed up. Bakura had steered clear of Ryou for the 4 days, leaving Ryou quite lonely.  
  
Dragging himself out of bed and deciding he was going to have a sandwich, Ryou never expected to see a few gifts under the tree. He pushed the thought aside and went to make his sandwich but he couldn't help staring at the presents.  
  
Finally, Ryou decided to go upstairs and change. He slipped on a red and green striped shirt and jeans before picking out red and green striped socks to match. He brushed his wild hair back into it's original position and went back downstairs... to find the presents still there.  
  
He went over to them for a closer inspection and found that they were all for him. He held a particularly skinny and long one up at eye level. The package it was red and shiny with different colored candy canes on it. It had green ribbon going around it and a green bow was on it. In the corner was the nametag. It said, "To Ryou, From Jou".  
  
Ryou raised an eyebrow at this and set the gift and picked up another one that was, apparently, from Serenity. He shook the gift in pink wrapping and found it made a soft 'clunk' when it hit the sides of whatever was containing it.  
  
The doorbell rang at that moment, making Ryou jump. He answered the door and was surprised to find Yugi, Yami, Jou, Anzu, Serenity, Mai, Honda, Mokuba and Seto on the other side of it. They all grinned at him, the falling snow occasionally hitting one of them in the head  
  
"H-hi guys," Ryou said, finding his voice once again. He stepped aside and let them all in. The guests took off their winter jackets and hung them up in the closet while Ryou was asking himself why they were all here.  
  
"We just thought we'd come and pay a visit, seeing that it's Christmas and all," Serenity chirped. Ryou finally smiled at them all.  
  
"Thank you," he said leading them all into the living room and in front of the tree. He let out a slow, soft whistle and 'Silent Night' started playing.  
  
"Cool!" Mokuba exclaimed watching the tree light up and the lights twinkle in time to the music. Ryou smiled and sunk down on the couch. The others crowded around the tree.  
  
"How did you guys get the presents here? I mean, I appreciate it and all but-" Ryou asked. Anzu interrupted him.  
  
"Yami Bakura came to our houses a few nights ago to tell us that you were going to be alone on Christmas. We had all gotten you presents before hand and decided to spend a part of Christmas over here, with you!"  
  
"M-my yami told you that?"  
  
"Yup!" Ryou glanced up towards the stairs leading to his bedroom and spotted Bakura leaning against the banister. He slowly walked down the stairs and sat in a chair a little ways off from them all. Ryou was about to ask him to join them when Jou exclaimed that he had a gift here too. Then Serenity found one for her and on and on, until everybody (excluding Bakura) had found a gift for himself or herself.  
  
"Oh yeah. The presents I had gotten you guys! But I thought those were up in my room..." Bakura motioned to himself with his hand, solving the mystery. Ryou smiled in thanks and started opening his gifts. He stopped halfway and dashed upstairs to get Bakura's gift. When he located it, he brought it downstairs and placed it under the tree with the others.  
  
"What's that?" Honda asked eyeing it.  
  
"A gift I had forgotten to place under there. Oh hey cool! A new sketchbook!!! Thanks Jou!!!" he exclaimed holding up the sketchbook. His old one had gotten ruined when the bullies had first started picking on him.  
  
"No prob! Thanks for the jacket. I needed a new one!" Jou replied slipping off his old jacket and trying on the one Ryou had gotten him.  
  
They continued opening their gifts. Ryou had gotten the jacket for Jounouchi, a new helmet for Honda for when he rode on his motorcycle, a cosmetic kit for Mai, a light blue spaghetti strapped dress for Anzu, a Nintendo game for Serenity and Mokuba, a Dungeon Dice Monsters game for Seto (Seto had complained he wanted it but couldn't get it because it would take too much time out of his schedule) and Yugi.  
  
Ryou got the sketchbook from Jounouchi, couple of CDs Ryou lost from Honda, more hair gel from Mai, a new sweater with a ying-yang on it from Anzu, a game boy and a game from Serenity and Mokuba (they split on it), a Battle City Duel Disk from Seto and some of the rarest cards that could be found only at the game shop from Yugi.  
  
"What about that last present?" Yami asked. The reason why he hadn't gotten anything from anybody is because Yugi had already given Yami a new leather outfit.  
  
Ryou sighed and looked over at Bakura in a way that said 'Please come join us'. Bakura lifted himself out of his chair and went over to the tree, picked up the gift and stared at the nametag.  
  
"For me?" Ryou nodded and held his breath. The white haired yami untied the ribbon, carefully unwrapped the present and made everybody gasp at what was in his hands.  
  
Ryou had knitted a sweater for Bakura. It was originally supposed to be a scarf but Ryou changed his mind and changed it. The sweater was black with blue letters spelling out 'I'm the evil one' on it. On the front was a little skull in the top right corner and the bottom had a blue zigzag going around it. So did the cuffs of the sleeves and the collar.  
  
Bakura held up the sweater for all to see, even though he was just inspecting it himself. Ryou had started to wonder whether or not anybody was going to speak. Finally, not being able to hold his breath any longer, Ryou timidly asked,  
  
"Do you... like it?" It took Bakura a while to answer, but when he did, it made Ryou nearly jump for joy.  
  
"I love it..." Bakura answered, his voice cracking. "Thank you Aibou." A crying Bakura enwrapped Ryou into a hug and Seto ushered the others into the kitchen, closing the door behind him.  
  
"Remember that night I asked you where the super glue was?" Bakura asked when he had stopped crying.  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"Well... Here." Bakura teleported a glass figurine and a note from his soul room into his hand and gave them to Ryou.  
  
"M-my figurine! I thought it was broken!" Ryou exclaimed taking the delicate glass fairy into his hands. His father had bought it for him when he was just five and when he was walking home from school a few weeks ago, the same bullies punched his bag and it broke. Ryou was devastated at having his prized figurine in 5 pieces and never thought to fix it. But, here it was, like nothing ever happened to it.  
  
"Thank you!!!" Ryou glanced down at the note and read it. It was in shaky handwriting and the characters weren't that great but it was neat enough so you could read it. It said:  
  
Dear Ryou,  
  
I know I have been quite horrible to you lately, so I decided to do something nice for a change. I had recently found one of your glass figurine things broken and decided to fix it. I'm sorry if I scared you when I came out of the Ring and tapped you. I really wasn't thinking on the lines of abuse that day.  
  
When I fixed your thing (I _still_ don't know what it is), I felt good about being nice that I told myself that I wouldn't abuse you anymore. It's going to be hard, though, so if I ever do strike you, I'm sorry in advance.  
  
And before I forget, the house looks nice. So does the tree, even though when I was whistling to myself the bloody thing turned on and started playing some freaky music over and over. You have too much stuff in here that activates by clapping or whistling, or snapping your fingers... Whatever happened to the _NORMAL_ things around here?!  
  
Anyway, that wasn't the point of the letter so I will complain about that, later. I hope you like you like your Christmas present.  
  
~Bakura  
  
P.S.: If those bullies come looking for a fight, call me. If they run away at the mere sight of you, just grin and walk away because I'd never be able to explain what happened to them. It's too complicated right now and I'm running out of space on this tiny little piece of paper I found while cleaning my soul room. It was the only one, too. Oh well, Merry Christmas!  
  
Ryou looked up from the note and grinned at the empty space, which was once Bakura. He had learned something from this years Christmas: Even though you may be alone in the house, or at Christmas time, or at any time, no one is really, truly, ever alone. Things always work out all right in the end.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~  
  
Shade: ^-^ That turned out okay after all!!! And I made Bakura cry!!!  
  
Bakura: Yes, I know that. And I'm not pleased!  
  
Shade: ^-^ I don't care! I actually finished this on time for Christmas!!!  
  
All: *groan*  
  
Shade: *Glares*  
  
All: *Cheer*  
  
Shade: That's better. ^-^ I hope you all liked it! Merry Christmas of 2002!!!!!! And happy new year!!!!  
  
Ryou: Don't you want them to review?  
  
Shade: They can if they want, I seriously don't care (for once). I just hope that they all enjoy the holidays!!!! Bye!!!! 


End file.
